Posts Tagged ‘moses’

moses

Parashat Haazinu 2015/5776: The Enemy of My Friend
In Moses' final instruction to Israel, he warns them that if they spurn God, then God will "hide God's countenance from them" (אסתירה פני מהם) (Deuteronomy 32:20). But curiously in addition to this threat of absence, God also warns the Israelites that God's support will be directed in favor of Israel's enemies: "They incensed me with "no-gods" (בלא אל)...I'll incense them with "a no folk" (בלא עם)" (Deuteronomy 32:21).
What is the difference between ABSTAINING from helping your friends versus AIDING your friends' enemies to hurt them? Does the identity of your friends' enemy matter? How does this relate to how we help or hurt our friends in our lives?
Photo is taken from[...]

moses

Parashat B'shalah 2014/5774 (Triennial II): Why Am I in the Middle?
At the end and the beginning of the triennial section of this week's Torah portion (Exodus 14:15 and Exodus 16:8), Moses finds himself standing between a complaining people and an impatient God. At first, Moses tries to intercede but later on he tries to get out of the way. Why the shift? What is different now about the relationships among God, Moses, and the Israelites that leads Moses to no longer want to be the middle man? And perhaps investigating this question will help us understand what to do when we are caught in the middle.
Join us for this interesting conversation on being caught in the middle.

moses

Parashat D’varim 2014/5774 (Triennial 1): “Many Hands Make Light Work”:The Importance and Challenge of Delegating
In any position of leadership, it is important to be skillful in delegating authority. In this week’s Torah portion as we begin the book of Deuteronomy, Moses recounts how he “cannot bear the burden [of the people of Israel] himself” (Deuteronomy 1:9) and how he set out to delegate responsibility to other chiefs of Israel. This is not the first time that the Torah recounts Moses’ attempt to delegate responsibility (Exodus 18:13-27 and Numbers 11:11-15). How are these accounts similar to or different from each other? What do each of them uniquely teach[...]

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2014/5774 (Triennial I) -- The Secrets of the Torah
There is something strange in the first word of this week’s Torah portion Vayikra, which also is the Hebrew namesake of the fourth book of the Torah called Leviticus. The final letter, the aleph, is smaller than the other letters. Why is that? Is it a typo, a scribal error? Or is there something more to this aleph ze-ira (small aleph) than simply its small stature, something that hints at the secrets embedded within each word and each letter of the Torah. We’ll figure it out together during this week’s class.

moses

Dear Hevreh,
One of the benefits of being the rabbi in our community is being able to help facilitate and offer opportunities for the teaching of Torah by members of our congregation, such as Sharon Bender, Gary Blog, Harriet Pearlman, and most recently Marc Fertik who delivered the D'var Torah this past week while I was away in Scranton. These moments are especially beneficial for me because at times I can get very caught up in my own "rabbinic mind" of how to interpret and teach Jewish wisdom and hearing interpretations of Torah from new voices stemming from the unique Torah of their life experiences helps me reimagine what Torah can teach.
This past week was no different as Marc[...]

moses

Thank you to Harriet for leading services this morning!
Before researching for this morning’s Dvar, I read both the Torah portions and the Haftorah.
Parashas P'Keudei is not the most exciting of material
P'Keudei begins with Moses's expense account, "These are the records of the Tabernacle …
While only the most obsessive CPAs are likely to want to audit Moses at this late date, it does provide a model for what we now call transparency. There should never be an issue that those who have the ability to tax us (or demand "donations") are personally profiting thereby. Indeed, Midrash tells us how far the priests would go to ensure there would be no such questions. The families of those responsible for the Temple's incense[...]

moses

2014/5774 (Triennial I) -- The Torah's View of Brotherly Love
In the Bible, brothers often don't get along. Cain killed Abel, Jacob stole Esau's birthright, and Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery. But are there more positive examples than these negative portrayals of sibling rivalry? Using wisdom from this week's Torah portion, Parashat T'tzaveh, and some teachings from the midrash, we will take a look at how the Torah does relate a positive example of brotherly love by way of the relationship between Moses and Aaron and what their example can teach us about what it means to have a positive relationship with our siblings.
Photo courtesy of Jim Hammer on[...]

moses

2014/5774 (Triennial I) -- Getting "Buy In"
Any successful leader or organization needs the people they serve or emply to "buy in" to the vision they are selling or promoting. Without that buy in, where's the motivation to do the work and to do it together? The same holds true for Moses -- was he able to get buy in from his leaders and from the people to promote the values of the Torah? What's more, how can we who live so many thousands of years after the Revelation of Torah buy into what the Torah is selling? We will discuss these questions and more during today's online parashah class

moses

2013/5773 (Triennial III) -- The Fear of Losing Power
The Torah makes it clear that the power to lead the Israelites belongs to Moses and then to Aaron. Yet no matter the legitimate claims for their power, the people rebel. Why don't they trust them? Watch this week's class as I discuss this question.